This week we watched the movie, Inside Out, and the episode “Man of the Future” from Star Trek: The Next Generation. These two both had a focus on emotions and their effects on you, although they both had pretty different takes on that concept.
In the movie, Inside Out, in the beginning of the film we are introduced to the main character Riley and we immediately are introduced to the film’s main concept which is that the emotions that people feel throughout their lives are physical beings within one’s mind. In many scenes we are able to see how quickly emotions can change such as when a younger Riley is sitting down in her highchair with her father attempting to feed her. We see Disgust take over when they see that the food is broccoli, we see Anger take over when her father says that if she doesn’t eat then she wont get dessert, and finally when her father begins to make the food “fly” towards Riley like an airplane we see Joy take over. We also see how the emotions that Riley has can make up her core memories such as her love for hockey and her family etc. We can see how Riley needs all of her emotions to function properly, when Joy and Sadness are trying to get back to headquarters and it is just Disgust, Fear and Anger they are unable to help Riley function which leads to her running away. In the end when Joy and Sadness finally work together, Joy is able to understand Sadness better and they both are able to get back to headquarters. After a time skip we are able to see that Riley is even better then she was before and she is able to properly express all of her emotions.
Next in the episode “Man of the Future” from Star Trek: The Next Generation, we see how negative emotions can affect people. In this episode we learn that ambassador Alkar is projecting his emotions onto Deanna Troi causing her to become aggressive and age rapidly, while he becomes level-headed and calm. In the end when Alkar is unable to project his emotions onto someone else and he begins to feel all of his emotions, he quickly ages and dies.
5 thoughts on “Blog 4”
Hi Rebecca,
I like what you said about Alkar projecting his feelings onto Troi. We too, as humans, have a habit of projecting our feelings onto others without realizing it, which is damaging.
I also noticed that you started off speaking about Star Trek by saying that it “…showed how negative emotions affect people”. What’s interesting, is that, depending on the context, Deanna Troi’s lust could be labeled as a positive emotion and so could her anger.
I think you could maybe expand upon the image of a level headed, emotionless man vs the erratic, emotional woman, and maybe ask what message the screenwriters were trying to give the viewer. For example, could they be implying that we’re better off without emotions?
toyoung
Hi Rebecca,
In your post, you make an important point about how quickly Riley’s emotions shift depending on who is at the control panel. What does this representation of emotion suggest about how the film understands our experience of them? Can you connect this representation of emotion to any of the information that you learned in this week’s VT? Does the film represent our emotions as being under our control? Or are we under theirs?
Jessica Hautsch
I really like that you showed how all the emotions worked together immediately. Without just one of the emotions to work with, her decision making and overall attitude completely changes. It shows how driven the human body is by such specific emotions and how lost it is when it can explain any of them.
jjwaterman
One thing you said made me think, you mention, that the Star Trek episode was about how negative emotions effect people. But i think it comes down to more then that. In reality Alkar was removing all his emotions, negative and positive. This is an important distinction, which potentially would have made for a different episode.
onobs
One thing you said made me think, you mention, that the Star Trek episode was about how negative emotions effect people. But i think it comes down to more then that. In reality Alkar was removing all his emotions, negative and positive. This is an important distinction, which potentially would have made for a different episode.
In my blog I brought up something to a similar extent, I am very intrigued by how the system of whos at the controls works. You reference this when you speak about Riley at dinner in her height chair. The emotions hand off control seamlessly which i find very interesting.
onobs